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Nobody talks about the final delivery of the Ashes. It's the first that's renowned. That stray ball that goes to the slips, that beautiful stroke for four, that wicket, bowled him! Last balls? I had to look them up. Ali slicing a drive behind to finish an innings loss in a inconsequential game in 2015; Rankin being grabbed by the slip fielder off Harris, Boyd Rankin playing in his sole Test at the conclusion of a quick disintegration in a comprehensive defeat that's been plentiful in 2014; a Harmison short ball deflecting off Justin Langer's shoulder for four leg byes, the only four the Australian team manage in a pursuit they'll never get to make in 2005.

It distinguishes between wondering how things will go, and knowing how they do. One undeniable fact, there's no guarantee there will be a successful conclusion. For the last decade, England's Australian tours have finished in defeat, as opposed to with them. Andy Flower was dismissed as coach after one humiliating defeat, in 2013-14, Chris Silverwood was let go after another, in 2021-22. You can make a pair of XIs out of English cricketers who played their last Test match at the back end of an Australian tour during the previous 25 years, and even have a several individuals over to act as substitutes for each squad.

Stokes' squad have not asserted to be overly concerned about consequences. Stokes, like Morgan with the ODI squad before him, consistently states that if a aerial shot is grabbed near the fence is secondary as whether or not it was the correct choice to execute it in the first place, and in the field he's quick to praise a pitcher who concedes runs so long as they are bringing the team closer to taking that subsequent dismissal. But then the very reason Stokes tried to instruct his squad to adopt this approach was so they would be in a better position to produce the brand of the game he believes will do well for them in Australia.

The upcoming Ashes, for which they have been training rigorously, already seems like the result they are bound to face. It is this aggressive approach's make or break moment. And there are too many warnings of defeat in the national sport for the team to escape criticism if they do suffer another disappointing result in the coming weeks. Stokes's approach has been founded on defying expectations, and the counterpart is it feels as if there are many individuals who would be delighted to be validated.

Given that, it's a good moment to highlight that the crucial matter goes beyond where this concludes, but whether or not we found pleasure along the way. Four years ago, England were an thoroughly poor cricket team. They had been overcome in four consecutive series and were trailing in the final one, against the Indian team, when it was postponed because of Covid. They had won a single Test match out of 17, and lost twelve of them by large defeats. An eight-wicket defeat to New Zealand at the Birmingham ground, 157 runs to India at the the London ground, an innings and 14 runs to the Aussie team at the iconic ground, 10 wickets to the Windies in the scenic location.

England were thrashed by the Windies in the island in March 2022 just before Root stepped down as captain.

By the final stage, after all those stretches of testing and isolation and biosecure bubbles and endless beatings at the hands of all opponents, they were practically the most dejected and weary Test team the English cricket board had ever fielded to a playing arena. A great deal of what Stokes and McCullum have accomplished in the years since was in reaction to all that, as well as the Stokes' individual trials during his hiatus from the game in 2021 when he had suffered a series of panic attacks. It was intended to emphasize to all that it was intended as fun, if it was meant to be something.

It still is now. Although the Ashes is on the line, and although the team have finally recognized that they need to be a somewhat adaptable in the way they approach competing. Daily routines has a way of intruding, it can be hard to hold on to the knowledge we acquire in our toughest times.

Here is the England team that secured back-to-back fourth-innings chases of significant totals in one summer against the Black Caps; that made a massive 378 to beat the subcontinent giants that same summer; that became the first touring team to win a comprehensive victory in Pakistan; that showed resilience to a stalemate after going two games behind in the Ashes; that defeated the Indian team in the southern city off the back of one of the greatest innings ever played in the the area, and then defeated the Pakistani team in Multan off the back of a subsequent one.

It is the English squad, too, that somehow end up being defeated in a Test by an innings even though the rivals made a modest 326; who fetched up losing one of the finer contests ever staged after making a bold declaration in the initial batting effort against the Black Caps, and then repeated the action against the Aussies; who were soundly beaten by a huge margin in the Indian city, and who were on the wrong end of one of the island nation's finest wins. As a unit, they have recorded some of the unlikeliest wins, experienced some of the most embarrassing exits, achieved some of the unlikeliest tons, and taken some of the most startling five-fers in the records of English cricket.

Regardless of how this Ashes series shakes out, they have been, in turn, incredible, unbelievable, unconventional, exasperating, and completely, without regret, unashamedly enjoyable.